But the reason this one became a laugher for most of the second half was Indiana's defense.

Consider this: The Hoosiers opened the half on a 22-3 run to take a commanding 68-40 lead with 10:47 to play.

They did so despite not scoring on their first three offensive possessions. North Carolina (5-2) managed one field goal in that stretch, and from a vantage point six rows up it looked like IU may have tipped that one in, too.

Every North Carolina shot was difficult. The Tar Heels opened the second half by missing their first 11 shots. After the tip-in, they missed eight more in a row. That's right: 1-for-19 from the field to start the second half.

IU coach Tom Crean said the difference in the second half especially was the match-up on James Michael McAdoo. When McAdoo made two free throws with 4:14 to play in the first half, he had 10 points.

He finished with 10 points. He was 4-of-15 from the field and a non-factor in the second half. He only took five shots in the final 20 minutes and missed them all.

"They live for that break but the heart of their team is the post up,'' Crean said. "And we needed to do a better job on the post up. We let them get a little comfortable in the first half. We let McAdoo make some turnarounds. He's a tremendous player.

"I just think Will Sheehey did a phenomenal job on him. We gave up a couple of rebounds but Will was fighting him, Will was making it hard for him to catch it and we knew that they were going to need to go to him to get it going.''

IU's dominance actually started late in the first half.

For 17 minutes the teams traded baskets. North Carolina only led one time ‚?? at 19-18 ‚?? but the Tar Heels kept it close.

But at the 2:20 mark of the first half that began to change.

IU (7-0) led 37-33 when the energy got turned up both by the team in white and a raucous crowd bathed in red of 17,472 at Assembly Hall.

Oladipo had a jam, Zeller had a follow jam and Sheehey made it a trifecta when he made a quick cut to the basket and took a pass from Yogi Ferrell that resulted in a straight down jam. That put the Hoosiers up nine at 44-35. Zeller finished things off when he scored on a follow shot with under a second remaining.

The second half was all Indiana. And how. In fact, go back to the 2:20 mark and North Carolina managed just 26 points the rest of the way.

"We just felt if we could keep getting after them on defense that they would start missing shots and that's what happened,'' Zeller said.

Dexter Strickland led North Carolina with 14 points.

The Tar Heels are now 0-2 against teams from the state of Indiana in the last week, having also lost to Butler in Maui, 82-71.

Butler led by as many as 29 against North Carolina. The Hoosiers did that one better as IU led by 32 with 4:22 to play in the game before Crean cleared his bench.